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Training
Your Krav Maga Instructor - Paul Grey
Paul Grey (far right) teaching at the "Krav Maga Boot Camp"
Bio
My training goes back to 1971 where I first slipped into the borrowed Judo suit of a friend. I trained at a wonderful Judo club run by Sensi Gilbert in Sherborne Dorset. Sensei Gilbert was a great instructor, modest, supportive and commited to Judo. These first few years of training proved addictive to me and were the start of a 30 plus year career in martial arts training that has had a profound and positive effect on my life.
Over the following 30+ years I gained 3 Black Belts, 4 teaching certifications and 20 plus years experience in a range of 'challenging' environments. I was dealing with a wide range of violence and aggression in a professional capacity or teaching others to do so. I worked as a Psychiatric Nurse, Nurse manager, Control and Restraint trainer and team leader. I have also worked as a Clinical auditor specialising in auditing the use of restraint, and as a consultant to organisations dealing with conflict on a regular basis.
During my martial arts career I met with and trained under some inspiring people. Some well known, others unknown. Each great instructor had their own strengths and weaknesses but all were honest, humble and able. Their training was literally part of their very being.
The not so good Instructors included liars, fraudsters and inadequate men; usually passing themselves off as 'Masters' or High Level Martial Artists. To this day I remain deeply suspicious of highly graded individuals with less than 20 years dedicated training in a specific system. Typically the dodgy characters bullied or humiliated students for their own aggrandisment, lied about how good they were/are and were generally a pain in the arse. These people were often unsuccessful in life outside of their club/organisation and relished the little bit of power within it.
You still find these characters in the martial arts. They can often be identified by the insistance on the use of titles, high grades or hiding behind rules, rituals or martial arts mysticism, (death point strikes - mystical chi power and so on).
About Training You
I am passionate and committed to training people of all abilities. Not just the most able.
If you decide to train with us, you embark on a journey of self development, not just self protection. Training hard and training regularly is an incredibly powerful tool for self development. People literally grow as individuals here. Physically, the training is tough but achievable for ordinary people. Training can be very hard but, by taking students out of their comfort zone they discover skills, abilities and strength they never realised they had. We will take you out of your comfort zone and push you but always with a view to your own success and achievement. Like many of the more combative forms of training, our accomplished trainees are typically modest, hard working and humble in their own abilities.
Why Krav Maga
I came to Krav Maga as it offered a refreshingly honest and simple approach to self defence. Krav Maga was what I had been looking for over all those years. No muddled techniques, No 'your doing it wrong', or 'approved attacks" Just a Simple, usable and effective approach. In short the Krav Maga approach is a logical one. Here is the problem, what is the solution ? Does it work ? Lets pressure test it and see. Training should be simple, realistic and achievable for everyone. To condense my own training philosophy into one sentenance. 'Be honest with yourself, modest and train dilligently with good people.'
On Traditional Martial Arts
I love the traditional systems. They all have something of great value to offer the long-term committed student. The traditional systems offer a great opportunity to develop both physically and mentally. Personally, I gained confidence, life experience, awareness of others and my first experiences in business. Plus I learned the physical skills. But in terms of benefits, the non-physical skills always far outweighed the physical benefits. I don’t regret any of my own traditional training, I would not swap any of it, not a single moment.
Krav Maga is not a traditional system - it has a very different purpose. This doesn't make it better or worse, just different.
For me the attraction was the simple problem solving approach and the realistic nature of the training. It was re assumingly tough and you felt " Hey this stuff works'". So from now on it’s Krav for me.
My problem with many traditional systems is that instructors and organisations confuse martial arts and self-defence. They are vastly different. 90% of what is taught in most traditional systems is not self-defence. It’s an imitation of traditional fighting systems from 100's of years ago. Modern martial arts are taught for fun. In times gone by they were taught for survival.
Modern training "Martial arts training" could not be further from the harsh and brutal training undergone by our predecessors. With the exception of sports like boxing, mauy thai and a few others, most traditional systems bear little more than a passing resemblance to the real thing from times gone by.
My Teaching Qualifications
Graduate Krav Maga Instructor
Krav Maga Instructors Diploma
Kapap certified Instructor
F.A.S.T Certified Trainer and Bulletman - (Adrenalised Training)
Jim Wagner Reality Based Training Instructor L1
Wing Chun Sifu - 3rd Degree
Jeet Kune Do - Former Instructor - Lamar Davis
Brithai 1st Dan under Paul Griffin
Wado Ryu Karate 1st Dan
Certified Control and Restraint Trainer
Certified Staff Break away Trainer
L3 Advanced Fitness Instructor
Krav Maga. So that one may walk in peace. Imi Sde Or.
Paul Grey, Founder of the Krav Maga Training Centre Bristol
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Your First Lesson |
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So, you want to try Krav Maga ?
Well, now is time to step from virtual to reality. We offer tough, realistic training, but, it is geared so that anyone can step up to the challenge............ if they are commited.
How does my lesson start ?
Typically we meet you at the start of your lesson. We check you are safe to train (health check), introduce Krav Maga and its history, introduce ourselves and explain how membership works, (you should have a membership attachment on your email confirming your free session).
We explain that this is a time for us to look at you, as well as you look at us. Membership is not automatic. We look for people who are robust enough to deal with a few knocks, keen enough to train hard and mature enough to understand the principles of Krav Maga. Simply put, we are looking for ordinary, nice people.
At the end of the session, we review points covered with you, explain anything if it is unclear. These things are important as we want to ensure that Krav Maga is a good fit for you. If you are looking for traditional martial arts for example, we will tell you this is not what we do and possibly reccomend some of the excellent instructors in Bristol who can help you.
Will I be sold something or pressurised to sign a contract etc.
No this is not what we are about. Krav Maga training can get fairly tough. We look for mature individuals who want to challenge themselves. From complete novices to instructors, we train a wide variety of people, the consistant thing we look for is 'nice people' hence the great community we have established. From experience we have found that individuals who come trying to prove them selves or their system dont do very well under pressure. You might train with a housewife, soldier, doctor, solictor or student you'll never know.
Toward the end of the session we will answer any questions for you and if you express an interest in training complete a monthly payment form with you. This can be cancelled at any time. We provide an honest insite into training and provide anyone with realistic skills even in that first lesson.
What if I am unfit ?
One of the most common reasons for people starting Krav Maga is to improve fitness. If you are fit, great we can challenge you. If you are not fit we will help you with that.
Who wont you train ?
We wont train individuals with criminal convictions involving violent or sexual behaviour. If we have concerns we will ask you to provide a Criminal Record check. We reserve the right to do this at any stage during training.
We wont train under 18's
We will not train any individuals with radical views or political affiliations
We will not train individuals we feel are unsuited to the aims and goals of Krav Maga
We will not train individuals if we feel there is a significant health and safety issue
How long will the lesson last?
We reccomend an hour for the taster and usually allow you time to sit out in training as you start. The 2nd class is not open to beginners and much is harder training with heavier levels of contact.
What now?
Phone (078 1234 6025) paul or book our free session any monday (7.50 pm), tuesday (7.50 pm) or wednesday ( 8.50 pm). There may be a short wait as we only take a few people per session.
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